Hours after former England skipper denied the racial abuse accusations, his former Yorkshire teammate Rana Naved ul Hasan confirmed the claim by Azeem Rafiq, who earlier accused Vaughan of racial abuse.

Rana, the former Pakistani cricketer, in an interview with ESPNcricinfo confirmed that he heard Vaughan making racist comments to a group of Asian players of county team Yorkshire in 2009. Rana, the former Pakistani cricketer, was playing as the club’s overseas player at that time alongside Azeem Rafiq at Trent bridge, confirmed that Vaughan said, “There’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about it.”

Michael Vaughan on Thursday denied the accusations made by Azeem Rafiq and said that he completely and categorically denies that he ever said such words. Vaughan said that it hit him very hard that in his 30 years of cricket career – as a cricketer or commentator – he has never been accused of any such incident.

Vaughan said that he was asked to speak during the inquiry about the incident that happened 11 years ago that nothing was raised at that time and until the night before he was asked to speak to the inquiry.
Vaughan particularly said that the ‘you lot’ comment never happened that if Rafiq believes something was said at that time then it is what he believes.

Meanwhile, Roger Hutton the chairman of England county club Yorkshire, resigned from his post, following the racism row. He apologised to Azeem Rafiq for facing such comments.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly to Azeem,” Hutton said. “I am sorry that we could not persuade executive members of the board to recognise the gravity of the situation and show care and contrition. I want to be clear that when I was made aware of Azeem Rafiq’s allegations, I immediately reached out to the ECB to ask for their help and intervention to support a robust inquiry. I was saddened when they declined to help as I felt it was a matter of great importance for the game as a whole,” added Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton.

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With so much hype around the much-awaited clash between India and Pakistan on October 24, the former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq on Friday picked India as his favourite side to win the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 title.

His statement comes just 2 days before the two arch-rivals India and Pakistan are scheduled to face each other at their opening encounter at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium .

The ICC T20 World Cup 2021 is in progress in Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) and fans are eagerly waiting to see the arch-rivals Sunday clash.

India eased to a comfortable win over Australia, two days after victory over England, to end the warm-up matches on the best possible note. First, India defeated England by 7 wickets then registered a comfortable 8-wicket win against Australia.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Inzamam said India have a greater chance of winning the trophy as the Dubai conditions are similar to the subcontinent, which makes India the most dangerous side in the T20 World Cup. If we see the 155 runs they chased down, they did not even need Virat Kohli to do so, he said.

Inzamam also said India have many experienced T20 players and it’s not just their batting, their bowling unit is also very experienced. He predicted that the team’s spin department would be a major factor in the T20 World Cup.

Former Pakistan skipper’s remark came a day after former England skipper Michael Vaughan had said that he didn’t understand the reason behind Team India being seen as a favourite to win the tournament this time around.

Read Also: T20 World Cup: List of winners from 2007 to 2016

Though, Inzamam, who has been a part of many India-Pakistan World Cup matches in the past, did not pick any favourite and termed the India-Pakistan Sunday clash as the final before the final. The winning team will go into the remaining matches high on morale, he said.

India are originally the hosts of the T20 World Cup 2021 but the tournament is being played in UAE and Oman due to the pandemic situation in India.

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The 5th and final Test match between England and India was called off on Friday due to fear of more Covid-19 cases in the Indian camp. India head coach Ravi Shastri was the first member to be found Covid positive.

Earlier this week, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R. Sridhar were also found Covid-19 positive. The RT-PCR report of junior physio Yogesh Parmar was enough to cancel the final Test match, which came in yesterday and was found to be positive.

Two hours before the match, the England Cricket Board confirmed that the match has been called off as the Indian team were not able to field their side for the Test, hinting that the match had been forfeited. But the Board was reviewing its statements after the BCCI put its foot down over the claims of forfeiture.

After the ECB decided to term it a cancellation, former English captain Michael Vaughan said he was disappointed with the way the series has been cancelled. Vaughan said India have let England Cricket down. He added that England had also let South Africa Cricket down, with reference to the South Africa-England ODI series in 2020. The England team had refused to play a single ODI in the 3-match series with and returned home.

Ex Aussie cricketer Shane Warne also tweeted about the shame that such a good and riveting series had to end like this.

Former English captain Nasser Hussain said, “It would have been nice to complete the series, after both the teams have been following bio-bubble and all the Covid protocols, it’s a real shame that it has ended on such a low note.”

India still leads the series 2-1. Both the boards have decided to postpone the match and schedule it in the future to complete the series as the series is still incomplete.

As per reports, ECB are set to lose about Rs 200 crore due to the cancellation of the final Test match. The game could have been rescheduled 1 or 2 days later but players have to leave for the UAE for the remaining leg of the Indian Premier League.

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As the debate continues on who is the best batsman of the modern era, former England skipper Michael Vaughan feels Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli is the finest all-format batsman.

Replying to a tweet that said former Australia skipper Steve Smith is the finest all format batsman, Vaughan tweeted: “Disagree … Virat is the best all round … !!”

Disagree … Virat is the best all round … !! https://t.co/zJPt7v8ewS

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 20, 2020

The comparisons between the two star batsmen were renewed after Smith finished as the highest run-getter in the recently concluded ODI series against India.

Steve has a terrific record in Test cricket and has far superior numbers to claim his place as the best Test batsman of the modern era. Smith averages 62.84 in 131 Test innings while Virat Kohli averages 54.98 in 141 Test innings.

But when it comes to limited-overs cricket, Virat Kohli’s numbers are much greater than that of Steve Smith. Virat Kohli averages 59.86 and 52.73 in ODIs and T20Is respectively and is the number one ranked ODI batsman. Steve Smith on the other hand averages 42.97 in 50-overs cricket and 27.48 in 20-over cricket, which is impressive but much below his Indian counterpart.

The debate will continue among the cricket pundits as to who is the greatest batsmen of this era, but with overall international numbers in Virat Kohli’s favour, Michael Vaughan’s pick seems to be right.

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